Famous People Born in 1944 a to z

Jeff Beck is a guitarist best known for his recordings and performances with The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, and as a solo artist.

Media magnate Conrad Black once owned The London Daily Telegraph and The Chicago Sun Times, before he was convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice.

Scottish gang member Jimmy Boyle got a life sentence for killing Babs Rooney. After his release, Boyle became a businessman and worked with young offenders.

Con artist Sandra Bridewell, known as the "Black Widow," collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lovers and friends, and was suspected of being connected to several mysterious deaths.

Stockard Channing is an award-winning American actress best known for her roles in Grease (1978), Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and The West Wing (2002).

Technology entrepreneur James Clark started Silicon Graphics, launched Netscape with Marc Andreessen and created Healtheon, which merged with WebMD.

Rita Coolidge is an American two-time Grammy Award–winning singer best known for her hits in the 1970s, including the album Anytime...Anywhere.

Roger Daltrey is a rock musician and singer who’s the former lead vocalist of The Who. He’s also a film and TV actor.

Lead singer for The Kinks, Ray Davies is known for his decades-long career in rock, hits like ‘Lola,’ and ongoing feuds with brother and bandmate Dave Davies.

Angela Davis is an activist, scholar and writer who advocates for the oppressed. She has authored several books, including Women, Culture & Politics.

American actor Danny DeVito began his rise to fame on the TV show Taxi. Since then, he's starred in feature films such as Twins and Ruthless People, and on the popular show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Michael Douglas is an American actor best known for his roles on TV's Streets of San Francisco and in the films Wall Street, Fatal Attraction and Wonder Boys.

Throughout his career, American actor Sam Elliott has played gun-slinging cowboys on TV and in films, including The Quick and the Dead and Tombstone.

Nicknamed "The Ox," bass guitarist John Entwistle was a founding member of the legendary rock band the Who.

Steve Fossett was an American businessman and adventurer best known for circumnavigating the globe in a hot air balloon in 2002.

Bonnie Franklin is best known for playing Ann Romano, a loving but tough divorced mother on the hit television show One Day at a Time.

Joe Frazier was the world heavyweight boxing champion from February 1970 until January 1973 and fought in the famous "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975.

Rudy Giuliani is a former major of New York City who served during the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001.

For close to a decade, actress Karen Grassle was known to TV audiences as pioneer mother, Caroline Ingalls, on the hit show, Little House on the Prairie.

Marvin Hamlisch composed more than 40 motion picture scores throughout his career, including 1973's "The Way We Were" and 1975's "A Chorus Line." He is also known for his musical adaptation for 1973's The Sting, and work on such films as Sophie's Choice and Ordinary People.

Roy Horn is half of the headlining Las Vegas magical duo Siegfried & Roy who survived severe injuries after an onstage tiger attack.

Singer Gladys Knight has given voice to multiple R&B hits (with and without her Pips), including "Midnight Train to Georgia."

George Lucas directed the Star Wars films and Indiana Jones movies, both of which took on a cult-like following.

Nick Mason was a founding member and drummer of the British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd.

Architect Thom Mayne helped found the architectural design firm Morphosis, and co-founded the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).

Explorer and mountaineer Reinhold Messner is famous for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

Craig T. Nelson is an actor known for his roles on the TV series Coach, and in films like Poltergeist and The Incredibles.

Antonia C. Novello is a former U.S. surgeon general who was the first woman and first person of Latin descent to hold the position.

Puppeteer Frank Oz is the man behind such iconic characters as Yoda, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Grover, and Animal. He's also directed several films.

Sebastião Salgado is an award-winning photographer known for his arresting documentation of communities across the world.

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky made headlines in November 2011, when he was arrested on several sexual offenses related to children. He was later found guilty of 45 charges and sentenced to serve 30 to 60 years in prison.

English film director Tony Scott was best known for his first box-office success, Top Gun, as well as later films like True Romance and Enemy of the State. He was the brother of  Ridley Scott, also a famed producer and director.

African-American track and field star Tommie Smith broke both the Olympic and world records and won the 200-meter race in the 1968 Olympics.

Charles Sobhraj was a famous serial killer in the 1970's, known for drugging and killing between 12 and 24 western tourists in Asia. His several successful escapes from prison coined him the nickname, "The Serpent."

Jerry Springer is an American talk show host, best known for his tabloid talk show, The Jerry Springer Show. He is also a former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Actor and lawyer Ben Stein was a speech writer for Richard Nixon, but is best known as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Actor Jeffrey Tambor is best known for playing in the late-night spoof series The Larry Sanders Show and for playing the Bluth twins in the comedy series Arrested Development.

Peter Tosh was a renowned reggae artist and founding member of the band the Wailers, which gave reggae artist Bob Marley his start.

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple.

Singer Mary Wilson, along with friends Diana Ross and Florence Ballard, formed The Supremes in 1961 and soon became a Motown legend.